{"id":264,"date":"2017-10-06T12:31:05","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T16:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/?p=264"},"modified":"2021-08-18T15:19:18","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T19:19:18","slug":"beloved-the-pain-of-memory-and-rememory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/2017\/10\/06\/beloved-the-pain-of-memory-and-rememory\/","title":{"rendered":"Beloved: The Pain of Memory and Rememory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not only have common patterns in the physical writing been apparent, but common themes in Tony Morrison\u2019s book, Beloved<\/em>, have also made themselves known. In broad retrospect, common themes that have been recurring in this text have been ones such as the warping of time, and it\u2019s fluidity in the text. There is also the matter of pain, whether it is physical pain, or the mental pain of remembering the past.<\/p>\n

All of these aspects become apparent in the section I have chosen for this post in Beloved<\/em> on page 113. The theme of warped and fluid time is represented in a way that creates a sense for the reader that there is no linear path that the book follows. Characters can die or leave the scene, but they will always come back and keep circling around like vultures waiting for the opportune time to strike. On page 113, the third person narrator takes on the persona of Sethe as she remembers Baby Suggs, deceased at this point, as she sits in the Clearing that Baby used to frequent. Although Baby Suggs is dead, and we know this through Sethe\u2019s \u201crememory\u201d of her, she somehow creates a physical presence as she is seemingly \u201ctouching the back of [Sethe\u2019s] neck,\u201d with fingers that are \u201cgathering strength,\u201d (p.113).<\/p>\n

The idea and physical manifestation of Baby Suggs also speaks to the point of pain, not just the manipulation of time to bring characters back from the dead. It is Sethe\u2019s pain and longing to have Baby Suggs back that calls her into a sort of physical form that is able to knead the back of her neck. Not only does the pain of loss bring Baby Suggs back into being, but she also brings with her anguish, or a pain of her own to inflict upon Sethe. As if the pain of loss cannot go unaccompanied by physical pain. As the fingers push \u201charder, harder\u2026 Sethe was actually more surprised than frightened to find she was being strangled,\u201d (p.113). The fact that Sethe is \u201csurprised\u201d rather than \u201cfrightened\u201d is what was striking about this sentence. The pressure of Baby Suggs\u2019 presence at first brings her peace that soon turns into pain and surprise.<\/p>\n

This simple schema seems to be a recurring theme in Sethe\u2019s life. When she escaped Sweet Home, she was only consumed by the relief and peace she found in the house with Baby Suggs, but despite this, the past came creeping up not far behind and inflicted its pain on Sethe. It was a pain that was inescapable and triggered by the smallest of instances and impossible to predict. The next stage was the surprise and not fear. She was surprised by the schoolteacher and his entourage and resorted to killing her children, but she was not frightened. It is similar with this instance with Baby Suggs\u2019 ghost supposedly strangling her, that she is used to the cycle and almost expects pain to be right around the bend.<\/p>\n

Her surprise leads Sethe to go \u201ctumbling forward from her seat on the rock, she clawed at the hands that were not there,\u201d (113). The word tumbling echoes the rapid changes in Sethe\u2019s life, and the fact that none of these are her own decision. It is only when she does make the decision to escape that she has the time to stop and remember all the terrible things done to her, and the ability for her to let the pain in. The word clawed also speaks to pain, as the word itself evokes this sensation, and also desperation. \u201cClawed\u201d paired with the remainder of the sentence, \u201cat the hands that were not there,\u201d creates a sense of pain for things that are ghost-like, no longer there, and therefore in the past. Sethe suffers from pain from her past, present and future because of the pain she endured as a slave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not only have common patterns in the physical writing been apparent, but common themes in Tony Morrison\u2019s book, Beloved, have also made themselves known. In broad retrospect, common themes that have been recurring in this text have been ones such as the warping of time, and it\u2019s fluidity in the text. There is also the … Continue reading Beloved: The Pain of Memory and Rememory<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3166,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145910,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-blog-posts","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}